63 Telecom Landscape 5.2 HANDSETS: ANTICIPATING LEAPFROG Despite the nation’s scarce connectivity, number of smartphones were soaring. This was driven by the devices’ gaming and media capabilities coupled with the promise of afford able and reliable connectivity. For example, out of 57 phone owners interviewed during this study 42 had touchscreen smart phones. Touchscreen smartphones were well suited to a generation with minimal traditional typing skills and not very comfortable in English. Huawei handsets were more common among MEs interviewed through this study. Most of the MEs took advice of their family members (mostly brother/sister) and friends before buying a particular handset. Aung (dumpling seller, Yangon) bought a Huawei handset worth MMK 150,000 ($150) as his sister was also using the same handset and recommended it to him. Laura (banana seller, Yangon) bought a Huawei G730 worth MMK 160,000 ($160) only because her brother recommended it. She also liked her phone as it had big screen. Big screens offered by touchscreen smartphones was an important feature preferred by most MEs interviewed. Chan (strawberry seller, Yangon) bought a HUAWEI g610 mobile phone worth MMK 130,000 ($130) as it had big screen. Access to data driven apps was also observed to be a preferred function of smart phones over feature phones. For many MEs interviewed, Facebook and Viber apps were synonymous with a phone call, with little distinction made in quality of call or ease of use between them and a traditional dialer. Naing (PoP statue maker, Bago) had several offline applications. He also used offline file sharing apps like Zapya, Xender and used a photo editing apps Cymera and played games. He also expressed a need of having a weather forecast application. Chan’s phone Based on our observations on field, keypad-driven interactions were bypassed altogether as there were very few MEs who were using a keypad phone. Only Khine (Thanatkha seller, Naypidaw), Htwe (Souvenir maker, Naypidaw), Zaw (Journal seller, Naypidaw) and Moe (Bag and chain repair, Mawlamying) had keypad handsets as they did not want to spend much on the handsets. Even those MEs interviewed who did not have a phone expressed the desire of buying a smartphone only whenever they could. This was very much evident in the case of Diya A picture of bamboo handicraft on made by Htwe on his phone